Two Different Approaches

Being a female in any career that does not involve cooking or cleaning, is already met with discrimination from sexual harassment to the pay gap. However, being a female trying to make in the hip-hop industry is almost impossible. Hip hop is known to be hard, angry, and sexual and females are expected to soft, gentle, and conservative; therefore mixing the two seems unheard of. What if gender did not define our personalities? What if, as a female, I could be angry, hard, or even sexual? Due to the facts that these what if’s are actually possible, females entering hip-hop is actually plausible.

The first artist I listened to was Hold On by Medusa, an African artist from Tunisia. Her imagery was mildly boring, she didn’t really move her body, her expression was pretty much consistent throughout, and the scenery did not change until the last quarter of the video. However, once the imagery changed at the end, as a viewer who did not speak her native tongue I was able to understand the message she was trying to convey. Yet, to convey this message she did not break or fit into any stereotypes. Medusa was neither hard nor soft in the video, her lyrics were not angry and neither was her stance, also Medusa was not sexual at all. She came, she rapped, and the video ended.

The next video I watched was Stella Mwangi – Biashara. The video was extremely fun, probably to match the beat. Yet she fit into the hip-hop demands to say the least. Stella was very sexual from her moves to way she addressed her body. She was smoking with the big boy and had the male stance on point (the grabbing of the crotch with legs slightly spread, and a mean mug). Also, she had a male rapper in the video, which most people feel validates female rappers. Stella Mwangi manage to break every notion about females in general, while fitting into every notion about hip-hop artist.

The artist contrast in these two videos basically tell future female emcees that you don’t have fit in to make it in hip hop, but you can fit in if you so desire.

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The podcast features discussions and interviews on hip hop music and culture produced by African artists in Africa and in the Diaspora. The podcast is produced by Dr. Msia Kibona Clark and students in the Department of African Studies at Howard University. You can access all of our podcasts and blog posts on hip hop in Africa at www.hiphopafrican.com or get in touch with us at feedback@hiphopafrican.com.